Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko, or Jeremie and Aelita.

Author's Note: I'm sorry it took me soooooooooo long to update. My old monitor died (because it was older than me…) and I had to get a new one, so that took a little while. Anyway, thank you everyone who reviewed and waited patiently.

Worlds Apart

"Aelita! Aelita can you hear me?" I heard Jeremie's voice drown into Lyoko; the panic was easily understandable.

"Yes Jeremie," I replied, looking over my shoulder every couple of seconds for any of Xana's monsters. "Xana has activated a tower!"

I heard Jeremie sigh. "I know! He's shut down the scanners! I can't send anyone to help you!" He exclaimed, and I could hear his feverish typing in an attempt to restart the scanners.

"It'll be okay. There's an empty tower nearby…I can hide in there until things get better," I said, walking towards the tower, glancing around every couple of seconds for any signs of monsters from Xana.

I heard Jeremie breath a sigh of relief at my last words and continued walking towards the tower, when I felt a sharp pain in my side.

"Aelita! It's one of Xana's monsters! Are you okay?" His voice drowned into Lyoko and I nodded, saying I was fine.

I turned around, seeing two tarantulas behind me, ready to shoot, and started running towards the tower. Each step felt as if my feet weighed a ton, and I could hear the two tarantulas getting closer and closer to me.

I finally made it to the tower and connected to Jeremie.

"Jeremie?" I asked, but he didn't answer. "Jeremie? Are you there?"

It was no good; Xana had frayed the connection from Lyoko to the real world. I sighed and sat down in the tower, waiting for Jeremie to reconnect, or for Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd to come help me deactivate the tower.

Maybe I could do it alone? I was thinking about it, it'd be easier for everyone on Earth, but I knew Jeremie wouldn't stand for it.

Why wouldn't he stand for it? Why was it that he seemed to care so much? Suddenly, thoughts of all kinds were pouring into my head.

Like why did he work so hard to get me virtualized? Maybe it was so he could finally defeat Xana and make everyone's lives easier…was that really it?

No, of course not! He was my friend, they all are! Maybe Xana was trying to trick me… my head started to hurt.

I stood up from the tower and tried to connect so I could fix the problem, but Jeremie was online, immediately kicking me off.

I sighed and sat back down, arguing with myself to stay or go. Xana did have monsters outside, but they were only two, I'd be okay.

Still, something kept me from getting up. Maybe it was fear-maybe it was loyalty to my friends-maybe it was love…

Love? Jeremie had told me about love once during our midnight conversations. Something about feeling strongly for someone of the opposite gender. When I told Jeremie that he was a boy and I felt strongly about him, he turned red and told me it was a different feeling.

When I asked for a further explanation, he told me that he couldn't explain something as wonderful and unpredictable as love. That it's just a feeling you have to experience to know.

Without telling Jeremie, I had concluded that he had never been in love, which someone made my chest hurt. But-why would he love me? I'm just a virtual being…

I'm just Aelita, the princess of Lyoko…the girl that was always going to be just out of reach-a burden for everyone. Even though my friends said I wasn't, I know that if they'd never met me, they would have shut Xana down long ago.

I heard something outside of the tower and poked my head out to see Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd fighting off more than just the two tarantulas that had followed me. More monsters had met at the foot of the tower to attack me when I finally left.

"Hey Princess!" Odd said happily. "Einstein got the scanners working!"

"Ulrich, take Aelita to the activated tower. Odd and I will hold off the monsters and catch up!" Yumi yelled, throwing her fans at two of the monsters. I smiled at her and jumped on the back of Ulrich's vehicle, holding on tightly.

We got a little ways without getting attacked by any of Xana's monsters, and things were quiet. Something had been nagging at me, until finally I had to talk to him about it.

"Ulrich?"

He smiled, "Yes Princess."

"Um…" I stammered. I really didn't know how to put this in to words.

"Watch out!" He cried and slammed on his brakes. He drew his sword and started going again and slashed through a monster.

"Ok, sorry about that. What were you going to say?"

"Well…you've been in love right?"

He turned bright red. I didn't even have to look at his face to realize it.

"Well…ye-yeah."

"Yumi?"

"How'd you know?"

I laughed, "Everyone knows-except maybe Yumi."

"Well, what's your point?"

Things got complicated again. "How can you tell? I mean, if you love someone, how can you be sure? What does it feel like?"

We had to stop again, and Ulrich pulled me off his vehicle and slammed it into three blocks that had almost shot me with their lasers.

"We'll have to walk the rest of the way…"

I nodded and followed after him. It was silent again until he finally said-

"It's just one of those feelings. It's being able to care about someone with all your heart and soul, and wanting to do anything for them…it's the way you can't stop thinking about them, and how you miss them when they're right next to you… Love is the only thing in this world that can't have a definition placed on it…it only decreases the value of the true word…"

What he had said threw me off guard and I had to stop for a minute. By this time we had reached the tower and with a final smile, I ran inside and entered the password.

"Return to the past now…"

X

That night Jeremie and I stayed up late working on the virtualization program.

"I think I've almost figured it out Aelita…you'll be with us soon…"

"Jeremie?" I asked, and he looked up immediately.

"What's up Aelita? Is everything okay?" he asked, immediately stopping what he was doing to talk to me.

"I talked to Ulrich…and well…"

He didn't say a word, just kind of stared on.

"Is everything ok?"

"Yeah…he told me about love."

He grew red.

"I'd been thinking about it for awhile…and I finally asked him. He told me you can't really put an explanation on love, that doing that only decreases its true value. He said it's caring so strongly about a person that it's hard to do anything else…"

"Wow, he's a real poet. Who'd'a thought?"

"Have you ever been in love?"

He turned red again and took his eyes away from his computer screen.

"I…think so," he spoke so quietly that it was hard to hear him.

"Jeremie, I'm not sure what this feeling I have means, but…I think it means that I…love you…"

I looked away, felt my face grow hot. His eyes grew wide and suddenly it seemed he couldn't breathe.

"R-really?"

I nodded, didn't do anything else. I wasn't sure what usually happened after this. Were we supposed to embrace? Well, we couldn't do that because we were worlds apart. Suddenly, I wanted to cry.

"Aelita, what's wrong?"

"It's not fair! Why do I have to be here in Lyoko while you're on Earth? I wish I were there…"

"I wish you were here too…but you'll be here soon…don't worry Aelita…"

I nodded again, but it still wasn't fair. From the little I'd heard about love, it was easy to assume that lovers were supposed to be together… but we were worlds apart.

"You've been thinking about this were awhile haven't you?"

"Yes…"

"Aelita…I think I love you too. And I'll do whatever it takes to bring you to me…"

I couldn't help but smile and I smiled so wide it started to hurt.

"Aelita…when you come to Earth…will you…will you be my…girlfriend?" he swallowed hard and the words hit me like bricks, throwing me off guard.

"Of course Jeremie…"

He smiled too, and started back on his work to virtualize me. Suddenly I knew why he worked so hard to bring me to Earth. So I could be with him.

Suddenly, the worlds that separated us didn't seem that far anymore…

X

Ok, well hope that helped kill about three minutes of your time. Sorry it took so long to update. I hope you like the next one-shot as well. Anyway review and I'll update faster!

Next one-shot: Ulrich's POV on Yumi

Ulrich doesn't know what to do about Yumi anymore. He's not sure if he can tell her how he feels. So he joins a chat room about love to get advice. But will it really help him? And who's this person giving him the advice?

REVIEW!

Fox Kitsune